“That’s a good win against a really nice New Mexico team, I thought our team competed and really played well for 40 (minutes). It was just nice to see the consistency both offensively and defensively today. I thought it was a pretty solid performance on both ends.”

“It’s important to protect your home court. You get those big road wins, now you have to back it up and protect your home court. I thought our kids did a nice job of putting that San Diego State game behind them and really came out today focused. I really liked our start, defensively we created a lot of havoc and created some turnovers and that allowed us to get out and run and scored some easy baskets early. We created energy by how we started defensively.”

“We had four kids in double figures today, 18 percent from the three, we had really good looks. Our shooting numbers not all that impressive but they find ways. A big part of our offense today was getting out and running in the first half.”

(on strong end of first half)

“We wanted the lead, and we wanted to finish that last four really strong and I think our kids did that. We talk about the first five minutes of the half and the last, we want to finish strong before the half.”

(on increase of bench play)

“Fresh legs equal fresh minds and now that we’re in the grind of the conference season, and the travel is tighter and closer, and there aren’t any days off, so it’s important to grow our bench.”

(on expecting to win)

“We got good leadership, Sam and Gritt, all of these kids. They got confidence, they got poise and I think they trust the plan that’s put together every night and they go out and play their tails off and find ways to win.”

“This was a very good team and I thought we played very well together today. I thought we came out and played a really good whole game, which we haven’t done as much as we should’ve.”

“We go out there and everyone has the same mindset that we’re going out there to win the game. Having a group mindset like that just makes a huge difference.”

(on improvements)

“What we’re getting better at is picking each other up and come together more. I think that’s very noticeable out there and it feels better. We’re learning how to be more of a team and play better together.”

(on run before halftime)

“That was really important. We started off really well then let them come back and get the lead. Then we started pushing the ball and setting the tone for how we were going to play the second half. Just to get that lead during half time allowed us to keep going when we came back out after half time. Our whole second half was very good.”